Hough Mountain to Dix Mountain Part 2

Location: Peru, NY

So I left off yesterday in the middle of our hike. We had started off at 6:30 am, and it took us a little less than four and a half hours to get to the summit of Hough Mountain. I took this photo on Hough – you can see the little round marker on the tree that shows we’re on the summit, and then in the distance behind the pointed peak that was our next destination – Dix!

I was a little worried that we might hit another spot like the one that had almost stopped me already, but once we headed out I was committed. There was only forward from this point on. So whatever we encountered, I would just have to make myself go forward.

 

There is Harry heading up the rock face in front of me…

 

 

 

 

This rock face was a little crazy to come across.

 

 

This is Harry coming across this rock ledge and NOT looking to see how close he is to the edge as he does it.

 

 

I was safely across and away from the edge when I snapped this shot of two members of our party.

 

 

 

 

That’s where we’re going!!

 

 

 

Now in this photo you can see where we came from. The peak in the center of the photo is Hough Mountain where we had our lunch. That open rocky area to the left of it is the rock ledge we came across that is in the photo with the two members of our party.

 

It was a challenge and I didn’t even get some of the photos of the more exposed areas of the ridge, because I was concentrating on NOT thinking about where I was and how open it was and how close to the edge I was, so I didn’t even think about pulling out my phone to take a picture. haha

 

 

This is Harry’s “I am very happy that we are at the top” face!!

 

 

Was it a challenge – both mentally and physically? Yes!! But when this picture was taken, I felt like I was on top of the world!!!

 

 

This is the view behind me when I was in that spot in the last picture!

 

 

 

 

 

And then it was time to head down! It took us an hour and 45 minutes to make our way from the Hough mountain summit to the top of Dix. We had 6.5 miles to go to get back to our car. It was 2 o’clock when we left the summit for the trek down the mountain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harry wanting a taxi for the last four miles!

 

I don’t have any photos of us at the end, but we all made it down! Those last 3 miles, the ones I had been wondering about in the beginning because they were relatively flat, now became a nice way to end the hike. We walked out to the parking lot where our car was waiting at 5 minutes before 7. So all in all, it took us a little over 12 hours for the entire hike.

It’s been a great month for hikes so far, and we’re not done yet!!